


Between

by Niki



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel (Movies), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Alternate Timelines, Gen, M/M, MCU AU, Marvel 616 AU, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover, Non-Canonical Minor Character Death, Post-Movie, Reunions, Trope Bingo Round 3, canonical minor character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 16:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niki/pseuds/Niki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He returned from the war alone, with Bucky and Peggy both gone, and Howard took him in, made him a part of his family.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Steve

**Author's Note:**

> I had a vague idea for a kind of story I wanted when writing prompts for [cap_ironman](http://cap-ironman.livejournal.com/) Holiday Exchange a few years ago, and received an absolutely wonderful story (Some Sunny Day by valtyr), but the original idea wouldn't leave me alone, and the gift story just inspired me to write with its awesomeness. I hope this is sufficiently different to not sound like a cheap knock off. 
> 
> First two chapters betaed by [marinarusalka](http://archiveofourown.org/users/marinarusalka/pseuds/marinarusalka) but then I sort of stopped writing for a couple of years. I've now decided to post what I have. This is a complete story on its own – I just never got to the planned slash bit.
> 
> For [](http://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/)**trope_bingo** square “Reunion”. (And my Super Bingo square "Secret Identity Discovered.")

As a soldier, Steve has always been aware of the possibility that he might not make it through the war alive.

Foolishly, he had not been prepared for Peggy being the one who dies. 

He returns to the States with nothing to return to. He has no home, no family – so Howard, almost casually, makes him a part of his, as if not realising how precious a thing he is offering. 

He introduces Steve to his fiancée, who seems to get over the Captain America thing fast and welcomes Steve Rogers into her circle. She seems like your typical high class dame at first, but Steve soon realises her sweet face hides a will of iron equalling Peggy's, and that her sense of humour matches his.

Steve is the best man at their wedding.

When they leave for their honeymoon, Steve might feel at loss but that is when the Army reminds him that they still have use for a Super soldier and the Howling Commandos are still needed in Europe. The war may be over but that doesn't mean that all the Nazis are accepting defeat.

He comes home in six months to the happy news that the Starks are expecting. 

When Anthony Edward Stark is born four months later, Steve is – again, almost casually – asked to be a Godfather. Cradling the tiny human being with tender hands for the first time Steve feels his heart burst with love and gratitude.

It takes him a full hour to remember to mourn for the child he and Peggy will never have.

Steve divides his life between the missions and the Stark mansion, his plans for an apartment poohed away with a recital of the number of empty rooms in the East wing. Maria does ask, when they are alone, whether he would prefer his own space, to maybe bring his own... friends in, but Steve smiles and tells her he'd rather stay home, thank you.

Her smile is both understanding and happy.

Maria is a good mother, but she is busy. She is involved in numerous charities and other obligations, and Howard, well. Howard is not a bad father but he is always busy, even when at home he is usually buried in his office, planning, designing, dreaming up a better, brighter future.

When Steve is home he spends time with little Tony, at first singing off-key lullabies to the restless baby, then playing with a fast-developing toddler, missing his first steps by a day, his first words by a week.

When he returns from yet another secret mission, a little dark haired boy welcomes him home with a “'Teve!”

Tony is as restless a child as he was a baby, learning fast and getting bored easy, but he never gets bored watching his 'Teve draw or paint, and soon enough he is drawing as well, pouting when the lines don't go where he wants them to.

Soon, all too soon, he is drawing robots and fighter planes and asking questions about load capacities and power sources.

Howard finds it amusing to answer his questions, and occasionally lets him play in his workshop. Steve worries when he uses the tools too big for his little hands, and uses some of his accumulated pay to order appropriately sized tools for him. 

They are red and gold like toy soldiers; tiny, but not toys, and Tony beams at him when he opens the box – a little boy used to getting presents and things, but so overjoyed always that Steve doesn't even think of resenting him. 

With a father like Howard and a glorified uncle like Steve, maybe it makes sense the boy builds things that are like miniature war machines, but Steve worries, none the less. War is ugly. War has cost him so many people already, and he doesn't want to think of this precious little human being in context of killing.

Maria assures him that it's normal, even boys with no genuine war heroes in their homes like tanks and bombers and guns. 

Maybe so, but not many of those boys can make their little creations fly and blow up, Steve bets.

Tony learns his 's' when he is four, but his nickname for Steve lingers until he turns six. Steve feels vaguely melancholic when it is buried with other childish things. 

Tony still uses his tools, though, and sits with Steve for hours when he draws.

When Tony is seven he goes to live at his school, and Steve is at loss. Maria and Howard seem to go on with their lives as usual, both busy with their own interests, but Steve has gotten so used to the little genius filling his days when at home that he finds it disconcerting to be alone.

The cook lets him sit in the kitchen, drawing, and Howard's manservant is quiet when he finds Steve spending time in Tony's rooms. Reading, writing letters to the boy, just sitting there watching the projects he has finished over the years. Jarvis even takes to keeping the rooms aired and heated for him.

Maybe he misses the little whirlwind, too.

Tony is so grown up when he comes home for Christmas. Howard talks to him like an adult, Maria takes him with her to several parties, and Steve... Steve challenges him to a snow ball fight, and in five minutes his Tony is back, and in an hour they are collected by Jarvis, wet and laughing, and deposited into the kitchen with mugs of hot chocolate. 

When Tony is eight, Steve leaves for a desperate mission to save the world from a next war, and never comes back.


	2. Tony

Tony's first memory is of Steve, the excitement of him coming home. He's been told it's the first day he walked unaided for longer than a few steps. He's also told it's impossible for him to remember anything from that age.

Tony Stark doesn't acknowledge the concept of impossible. 

The press loves him. A child prodigy whose godfather was Captain America, who graduated MIT before he should have even started his studies there, and who at 21 was a CEO of his own company. They love the tragedies, too – the loss of the National Icon, Captain America, a close family friend, at 8, and his parents at 21.

Tony tells anyone who asks that he lost his family when he was eight and leaves it at that.

He never comments on the rumours about his father's drinking but never allows anyone to say anything bad about his mother. Or Steve.

He still lives in the mansion, and Jarvis – a butler, now – still keeps his childhood rooms aired and heated, and sometimes Tony sits there, staring at the walls his godfather painted.

He remembers Steve, and he doesn't. He remembers the soft-spoken man from his childhood home, remembers the laughter and the love.

He reads about Captain America and tries to reconcile the two sides together. The only thing that fits is the courage. 

When he was thirteen he realised how very physically attractive his almost uncle was, and for a second was so mortified he was almost glad he was gone. But only for a second because the pain was still strong. 

At fourteen he found his father drunk in his office, poring over maps detailing the possible flight route of the plane that took Steve down with it, and felt fiercely glad that there was still something his father cared strongly about.

His mother seemed to get ever busier with her charities, and neither one of his parents seemed to know what to do with a son who kept getting stellar grades but managed to get in trouble in every other way.

At sixteen he already understood why his father enjoyed the drink so much.

When Tony was 21 his parents died in a car accident. He himself was in Europe at the time, and only Jarvis was able to convince him to come home to the funeral. He stayed, took over his father's company, and built bigger and better guns for the government, for other governments.

When he was 23 he walked into a landmine. Later he said that it saved his life.

Or maybe it was a man called Yinsen.

When Tony got back to the civilisation, his damaged heart beating thanks to an armoured chest plate, he set in motion the changes that would end the weapon production of his company, and end up in the forming of a super hero team called the Avengers.

In teaming up with Thor, Jan van Dyne and Hank Pym he feels he finally understands his godfather a little better.


	3. The Avengers

Tony looks around in the submersible, satisfied at how well it's functioning. As a test drive, this was a success. The secondary reason, or the justification for the whole trip, is not looking so good, but he can't really be sorry to miss having to deal with Namor for once.

The others don't seem to mind when he suggests they turn back. Hank has obviously enjoyed the chance to co-pilot the craft and Jan and Thor have been glued to the view port, underwater realm a new world for them both. 

He feels stupid, having kept his identity secret from his team all these years, even after they have become friends and not just team mates. Jan and Hank have been open with theirs, and Thor is a god from Asgard, what you see is what you get, not exactly your everyday secret identity.

But Tony... his team mates know Tony Stark only as their financier and the provider of all these cool toys. Iron Man is their team mate and friend, Iron Man is the one they have shared jokes with, and who has their back in a fight. 

His years with the Avengers have been – good. Good to feel like he is doing something positive, something worthwhile. Not enough to compensate for all the damage his weapons have caused, true, but then, he doesn't think anything will – can – ever be.

“There's something strange in the sensors,” Hank says, interrupting his thoughts. 

Tony frowns at the instruments and corrects their course towards the anomaly. Jan and Thor join them in the front, and strain to see something in the water. Tony glances at the radar, they should see it soon in the... colours. 

Red. Blue. Flashes of white in the search lights. 

They are hundreds of miles away from all the routes Howard plotted but Tony knows what they are looking at. With the certainty of the eight-year-old within him he knows what they have found. Whom they have found. 

His hero is coming home. They'll finally have something to bury. Not Captain America – he has a memorial statue at Arlington – but Steve Rogers, who has a place in their family lot and can finally be laid to rest next to Howard and Maria. Steve, who finally came home. 

“Help me get him in,” he says, Iron Man masking the emotion in his voice.

“Him?” asks Hank, and then gasps as the lights hit the shield, it and the shape behind covered by see-through ice.

“Is that...?” Jan starts but Tony is already at the airlock. 

Iron Man is waterproof, after all, and he will not risk this cargo to the loading arms of the sub.

Steve looks the same, even in a block of ice, like he was frozen the day he went missing and has been there ever since. Hell, most likely he has. His hands are clutching the shield and his eyes are closed, peaceful, like he's only sleeping. Tony touches the ice, blinking back tears. His 'Teve is finally here. 

“Iron Man! The sensors... they say he's _alive_!”

\- - - - - - - - - - 

Unfreezing Steve is something they have no option to avoid as they can't fit a man-sized block of ice in the freezer compartment and Tony categorically refuses to dump him back outside. Towing him along would only slow down the process too, as the water is getting warmer and will keep getting warmer the closer they get to surface and home; the ice had been melting off even as they found him.

They also don't really have other options than to wait. With barely half his concentration Tony is holding a conversation with Hank, trading words like “suspended animation”, “cryogenics” and “only a theory”. “Super soldier” gets stressed, too. Jan is explaining Captain America to Thor, the epithet “Living Legend” more apt than ever. 

And then the ice is gone, and Steve Rogers is breathing, correction, coughing, and Iron Man is on his side in a second, Hank's last sentence left hanging in the air. 

“Steve,” the robotic voice says, and the Star-Spangled Man opens his eyes. 

\- - - - - - - - - - -

Tony can see the confusion and fear in Steve's eyes and suddenly realises what he must look like to the other man. 

Hastily, he removes the helmet. 

“It's all right, Steve. It's me, Tony. The year is 1975.”

Steve blinks, still confused, and for a moment Tony worries the man he knew isn't inside the body anymore, that what they have recovered is merely the physical shell.

“Tony...” His hand – cold, so cold – touches Tony's cheek, and he covers it with his own hand, trapping the fingers against his beard. 

“It's me, 'Teve,” he mutters.

They look into each other's eyes for a long moment while Steve visibly gathers his thoughts.

“How long... oh God... Howard? Maria?” 

“Car crash, eight years ago. I'm sorry. Dad never stopped looking for you.”

“We need to get him to a doctor,” Tony says, tearing his eyes off Steve for a quick look at his team mates. 

They are all gaping at him. Oh, right, he thinks. The secret identity thing. He has bigger worries at the moment. 

Thor looks determined. “He is in need of a healer, true.”

He taps his hammer to the floor, and suddenly, in the place of a caped God of Thunder stands a thin man in a brown suit – and a fedora, of all things – with a heavy walking stick.

“Dr Donald Blake,” he says, simply, limping toward the bed. 

Okay, now Tony is gaping, too. But soon he has to turn to meet Steve's eyes again.

Steve is smiling, very faintly. “The future is a weird place,” he whispers.

“Weird and wonderful,” Tony agrees, smiling.


	4. Home

They get Steve back to the mansion with minimal fuss. Steve has been quiet, listening to their quick recap of the years he missed. He wants to ask about Tony, about all the things he missed in his life, desperately trying to reconcile the man he sees with the boy he knew. 

He looks like Howard, but not enough to ever mix them up. When he smiles, Steve can see the resemblance to Maria. And when he laughs, Steve finally sees his little godson, and can't help but smile himself. 

It's a lot to take in. Their words try to paint a picture of a world that has changed while he slept and he can't wait to see it for himself. 

Tony looks so alien in his armour of red and gold (like a toy soldier...), and there's a god, and a lady who can turn herself tiny, has her own fashion house but still chooses to be a soldier, protecting the innocents... Peggy would have loved the choices this brunette woman has. Maybe the world has turned better? 

At least from the outside the mansion looks exactly as it did when Steve left for his final mission. Tony explains that it's the Avengers headquarters these days, and for a moment Steve worries that means the insides have changed but his fears prove unfounded. 

Even his rooms are as they were. Tony lingers by the door as he walks aimlessly among his things, and tries to understand the passage of time. For him it's only weeks since he saw his home, his things, his unfinished drawings left on the desk. But now the paper has curled, bowing to the two decades, and he wonders whether all his pens have dried. 

Tony clears his throat, and he turns to look at him. He's still in the robot-like armour but holding the helmet in his hands. 

“I need to go take this off,” he says. “Will you... I mean, of course you'll be fine. If you need something... I'll be back soon.” 

Steve smiles, but lets it slip off his face after Tony has disappeared. 

He's restless and anxious, and feels like any moment now Maria will walk in to the room, scold him for not having changed out of his uniform, and telling him to hurry up because the food was getting cold, and as she had cancelled the guests in favour of a quiet family dinner to celebrate his homecoming the least he could do was to stay awake through it. 

The image is so vivid in his head he fears it'll only take a little push for the border between realities to collapse and then he really will be insane. He isn't really sure that he isn't, as it is. (Thunder god? Sleeping in ice for decades and waking up with as little damage as if he'd spent a night in his bed?)

He turns away and marches out of his rooms, heading towards the one room in the mansion where he always went when troubled. 

He tells himself he is being stupid, of course the room doesn't exist anymore – Tony has outgrown his toys and wall paintings ages ago. The room must have been redecorated for the growing young man, and isn't barging in like this an invasion of privacy?

The door is open, so he doesn't need to worry about stumbling on Tony changing clothes, and as soon as he has stepped in, he comes to a halt. 

It's all there. 

The toys, the paintings, the little robots Tony built when only six. The armchair where they sat (snuggled), reading stories, the desk where he wrote endless letters to Tony when he was away in school, the room airy and warm, like its occupant might run back in at any moment, and Steve misses the little boy so much it hurts. 

“Welcome home, Captain Rogers,” says a voice from the door, and Steve turns to only the second familiar face. 

“Jarvis!” His smile is real, and he fights the urge to reach out and hug the other man, who looks older, but still so very much like himself. 

Jarvis is looking around the room now. 

“When he outgrew his toys he moved to another room,” he explains. 

He doesn't say, “I kept this room for him” or “I kept it for you” but Steve hears it, and is deeply grateful that even after all this time he still has this to come home to.

“Why is the party in the nursery?” asks a deep voice from the door, and for just a second Steve expects a different face when turning. 

He also expects mockery; Howard wouldn't have understood the sentimentality. But he doesn't need to worry: this is his Tony, so his smile is soft, understanding, even happy. This time there is no reason to check the reaction, to not move in for a hug, so he does, and Tony meets him half-way. 

“You're late,” Tony whispers against his neck, shorter than Steve without his armour. 

“And I forgot to bring you a gift, too,” he chokes back, pulling him closer.

“Nuh-uh. Best thing ever,” Tony declares, and doesn't let go.

\- - - - - - - The End (at least for now) - - - - - - -


End file.
